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Of course, it had to be Twitter again for Donald Trump to announce breaking news before everyone else.

"Today is another historic breakthrough," trumpeted the US President.

"Our great friends Israel and the Kingdom of Morocco have agreed full diplomatic relations," wrote Trump.

His son-in-law Jared Kushner, whom he has employed as a consultant, reported at a specially convened press conference in the White House that the two states immediately opened offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv and promoted economic cooperation.

But the Moroccan-Israeli deal is not as sensational and surprising as Trump and his son-in-law presented.

The two countries have had good relations for decades and are historically linked.

Morocco has been a candidate for normalization of relations with the Jewish state for months.

It is now the fourth Arab country to open embassies in Tel Aviv after the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Sudan.

For Rabat this is ultimately a formality because it already had contact offices in Israel.

But the official move that Trump celebrates was not in vain.

The US president signed a proclamation in advance by which the US recognizes the controversial Western Sahara as a national territory of Morocco.

Moroccan prestige success in Western Sahara

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For Rabat this is a diplomatic triumph that Western Sahara quickly annexed after the end of the Spanish colonial era in 1975.

The Sahrawi liberation movement Polisario has been fighting for its own state with generous support from neighboring Algeria since then.

To date, the status of the Western Sahara region, which stretches from the Algerian border to the Atlantic Ocean, has not been clarified under international law.

The UN is calling for a referendum in which the population decides on independence or affiliation with Morocco.

It was not until November that after almost 30 years of a ceasefire, incidents between Polisario and Moroccan security authorities returned.

The Sahrawi militia had blocked the border crossing with Mauritania.

Hundreds of trucks carrying essentials were stuck for weeks.

For Morocco, the American recognition of its claims to Western Sahara is a prestigious achievement.

"Morocco's serious, reliable and realistic autonomy plan is the ONLY basis for a just and lasting solution," Trump wrote on Twitter.

In 2007, Morocco proposed that Western Sahara be granted an autonomous status, comparable to the Spanish provinces of Catalonia and the Basque Country.

A proposal that the Polisario rejected.

A Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty is out of the question for them.

But after the American recognition of Rabat's territorial claims, the Sahrawis could soon be faced with a fait accompli.

The US can exercise its influence on votes in the UN Security Council.

The secret services work together continuously

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In Morocco, only the Islamist parties refuse to enter into diplomatic relations with Israel.

Already in August there was strong criticism from the ranks of the co-governing Justice and Development Party (PJD).

Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani, at a meeting of the PJD, rejected all speculations that would bring his country close to Israel.

"We reject any normalization of relations with the Zionist entity," said El Othamni.

A deal would only "encourage the continued breach of Palestinian rights," said the head of government.

But now everything has turned out very differently.

Because in reality Morocco and Israel are closer than the PJD wants to admit.

The secret services of both countries work continuously together.

Morocco recently bought drones from Israel.

We have been cooperating in the agricultural sector for years.

Well-established communication channels also exist at the diplomatic level.

“It's all so hypocritical,” says Kamal Hachkar, a French-Moroccan director.

“It is pretended that there is no cooperation with Israel, but in reality it is very different”.

For the 33-year-old who made films about Moroccan Jews, normalizing relations with Israel is a natural step.

"You just have to think about the Jewish history of Morocco and how important it is for so many people in both countries".

The first Jews came to Morocco with the Phoenicians.

In the 15th century, the Spanish Jews fled the persecution of the Catholic kings Ferdinand II and Isabella I across the Mediterranean.

During the Second World War, Morocco became a lifeline again.

Ships carrying Jewish refugees were able to dock in the port city of Tangier.

The then King Mohammed V refused to sign the "exceptional laws" of the French colonial power allied with the Nazis, thus preventing deportations to concentration camps.

Until the middle of the 20th century, Morocco was the Arab country with the largest Jewish community with around 280,000 members.

Today there are no more than 3000.

Jewish history in Morocco

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After the Second World War there were several waves of emigration.

Most of the Jews went to Europe, North and South America, and very few went to Israel.

Even today, hundreds of synagogues, cemeteries and schools across the country bear witness to Jewish history.

On the initiative of Mohammed VI.

the buildings are extensively restored in order to preserve them for posterity.

Every year 50,000 people of Jewish faith travel to Morocco, the majority of whom come from Israel.

They come to celebrate weddings, visit relatives, go on pilgrimage or just to see the land of their ancestors.

Over a million people in Israel have Moroccan roots.

They include well-known actors, singers, basketball players, rabbis, military officials and politicians.

In the current Israeli cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there are 12 ministers of Moroccan origin.